Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub
[graphic][merged small]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]
[graphic][ocr errors]

"Tis a right down pity as ye hadn't hed a touch of the fever yerselves, ye howlin' young shrimpgrigs, to quieten ye a bit," screamed Nance.

The house Den was taken to belonged to his mother's people. It had been built a couple of hundred years before by some of the foreign traders that had settled in Marshton. Quite a mansion it was, in the Dutch style. The large courtyard was paved with flagstones; at one corner of it a spring of pure water supplied a big stone cistern, and the stream flowed from there to the tideway. The spacious kitchen was also paved. The owners of the house at one period of its history had been lobster merchants. At that time the market supply and demand for that shell-fish was very limited compared with what it is now. The fish comes in from many quarters at the present day. Norway supplied the market then, and these people imported them. Here the great boiling-coppers stood, under the gear for lowering the large baskets of fish into them. Directly the lobsters were brought to the right condition they were sluiced with cold water, and then laid out all over the paved courtyard to get properly cold.

From a door in the yard you passed to the stables

and cowhouses, and beyond these was a large garden well stocked with all kinds of fruit-trees and vegetables. From this garden a path led to one of the largest orchards in North Kent. This, of all places about Marshton, was the spot where the invalid lad might regain his wonted health and vigour.

On the garden side of the house, parted from it only by a low wall, was the pond belonging to the old mill close at hand. Here moor-hens croaked and clicked, and dabchicks dived all the day long; the scene being varied by the flight of wild-duck or the spring of snipe.

As to the house itself, it was spacious and airy. The rooms were lofty, and panelled from skirting to ceiling, like the rest of those substantial old dwellings in the marshlands. Where the oak was not left in its natural state, the panelling had been painted. It was built to stand the wear and tear of many generations. There were innumerable large cupboards with circular tops and folding-doors let into the massive walls. Even the roomy attic floor was supplied with them. Some of the attic rooms Den knew as a boy were as large and far more convenient than many of the drawing-rooms of the present day.

« AnteriorContinuar »